[Quadra Kill!]

[Team Five Eliminated]

Almond instantly wiped out an entire team. The news echoed throughout the Abyss.

Naturally, it reached the Paprika streamer, Omelet.

“What? A quadra kill?”

Surprisingly, another team had been crushed. Even more shocking, someone had pulled off a quadra.

— What the hell

— Huh?

— Kyaa

— RNGesus

— LOL shit

“Easy, easy. Let’s stay chill. You know what I mean.” Omelet also got excited and immediately tried to calm down. “We just wiped a team too. You saw that play just now, yeah? Our team is cracked as hell. We can take first place.”

And yet, he got excited again almost immediately.

— Cracked my ass LOL

— Cracked in tutorial queue LOL

— Cracked LMAO

To be fair, he wasn’t entirely wrong. His team had also won a massive team fight and knocked out another team.

‘Honestly, maybe not cracked, but...’

Omelet seemed fairly satisfied with his team’s performance. For beginners, they weren’t bad.

“We’re level four and about to have two summoners. I think I’ll be the last one to contract, yeah? The main character always comes last.”

The last summoner to form a pact got the strongest runes, so Omelet was aiming for the final contract.

“Last samurai type shit. You get what I mean, right?”

Once he contracted with top-tier runes, he could wipe everyone by himself. He didn’t know that the person who had annihilated a team earlier and the one who had just annihilated another team was the same individual.

***

Tap tap tap tap.

Almond ran in search of the Sanctuary of Resurrection.

“There were rune champions?”

He blinked at the chat as if hearing it for the first time.

— Yeah

— You ditched them LOL

— They were rune champions, where are you going LOL

— Oh no...

— You really abandoned them;

Almond wasn’t bad at maintaining awareness. If anything, he was pretty good. Still, he hadn’t seen them.

“I didn’t see them. Ah... they weren’t in my vision. Were they shown on the UI?”

It felt unfair from the rune champions’ perspective, but they had never actually entered Almond’s field of view. They had only appeared in the corner of the team UI.

“Uh...”

[Baegi] [Out]

[OstrichEgg] [Out]

[HamPunch] [Out]

[Yoyoyo] [Out]

After checking the UI, Almond tilted his head. “But it clearly says everyone is dead?”

— They already died to the circle LOL

— They’re dead now, idiot LOL

— You wiped them all and...

— They’ve already fertilized the land, my lord...

— Thanks for solo soaking all the XP, gg

The chat exploded with excited messages.

Almond felt wronged. “No, but the tutorial tip said to revive them at the Sanctuary of Resurrection...”

— LOL

— This guy...

— Grrr!

— It’s bots, who cares, for real

— Just play

— People backseating Almond LOL, must be a lot of new viewers

— That tip just pops up automatically.

“Hmm.”

Almond had seen this kind of chat plenty of times in Bubblegum’s streams. When a streamer made a dumb mistake, these so-called malicious backseat viewers would show up grinding their teeth and barking orders. Their advice was usually all over the place and often wrong. He had seen how Zelo handled people like this countless times.

‘Zelo jutsu: Cleansing.’

Almond finally drew his blade. “I’m going to ban weird backseating aggro. It’s bots. Why are you all so worked up?”

— Holy shit LOL

— Aggro LOL

— Kyaa!

— Actually ignoring bot matches?

— It’s bots anyway, who cares LOL

— LMAOOOO

— Immediate quick-draw stance ON

At Almond’s words, Ju-Hyeok banned them all.

Ding.

[SergeantMajor has donated 10,000 won.]

[New viewers smh. Backseating Almond? LOL I seriously don’t get it.]

“Thank you for the ten thousand won, SergeantMajor. You really get it.”

— For real LOL

— SergeantMajor LOL 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

— Skill aside, like Almond would take backseating in the first place LOL

— Yeah, this is straight-up disrespecting Almondoyle’s brain

— Almond looks happy reading that LOL

— Gotta discipline the new viewers. It’s bad.

The regulars finished tightening discipline with donations.

“There’s a monster that looks kind of strong.”

Almond spotted a massive monster.

[Lv. 7 Abyss Shark]

Just looking at it, it was clearly no ordinary foe.

“Can I take it solo?”

— Nope nope nope

— Impossible

— Your level is way too low

— Hit level six first

— You need the Sanctuary

He checked the experience bar.

[Level 5]

[91%]

He was higher than most, but it felt a bit low considering he had defeated two teams out of ten.

‘The rewards feel kind of small for winning fights.’

In a similar game like Battle Large, killing opponents allowed the player to loot everything. Combat was high-risk, high-return. From what he could tell, LIL’s Survival mode only gave a bit more experience. He couldn’t understand why people fought so fiercely.

Ding.

[TutorialTip has donated 10,000 won.]

[Try waiting around after eliminating opponents. You can obtain the runes they had and strengthen your champion.]

Turns out, the player could get enemy runes. Almond had just left them behind.

“Oh. I didn’t loot them earlier, did I? The Shadow was coming in...”

The first fight had nothing to take. In the second, the Shadow had closed in right after he killed the enemies and left him no time to loot. The rewards felt lacking because of this.

“Then, I took a bit of a loss.”

Because the donation came under the name TutorialTip, Almond immediately recognized it and even reflected on it himself.

— ?

— He accepts it this time LOL

— Wait, does he think it’s an actual tip? LOL

— Holy shit, I fell for it too LOL

— LOL it was a donation

— What kind of curveball is that

— If preaching doesn’t work, mix it into feed. Nutrient squad OP

— This is viewer experience at work

— New viewers, see this? These guys are pros at raising Almond

Almond felt like he was getting the hang of Survival mode.

[The Shadow will descend in 30 seconds.]

He heard movement as an alert sounded.

‘Oh. Someone is here.’

Rustle!

Almond quickly hid nearby. A full team of five appeared.

“It’s an epic mob. An epic mob.”

“Oh. Let’s kill it.”

They exchanged simple orders as they moved toward the epic monster.

From within the bushes, Almond muttered meaningfully, “They took the bait.”

— It was bait?

— Don’t act strategic LOL

— Where’s the strategy, Almondoyle

— You just ran into them by accident LOL

— Are you going to fight them?

“They’re level four.”

Almond was alone against five of them. They also had two summoners.

“If I were level six, I could try something. That’s a lot of them...”

— True

— Unlucky

— Just let the epic hit you a bit and head to the Sanctuary

— Five alive is too much

— At least he knows

— Wasn’t it bait? LOL

Even non-summoner players had abilities that couldn’t be ignored. Recklessly diving in with a glass-cannon champion like Raina was dangerous. No one knew that better than Almond, who had played Raina extensively.

“But... they’re all bots anyway.”

— ?

— ...?

— ??

— Oh?

— LOL that’s true

— LMAO

“And there’s a twenty-kill mission.”

On top of that, he still had to complete ShyNapoleon’s mission.

[Twenty Kills... Because They’re Just Bots.]

[420,000 won]

[8/20]

What had started as a 200k won bet had climbed to 420k won. More importantly, one detail about ShyNapoleon’s mission stood out.

‘It doesn’t say I have to win.’

Even if he didn’t win the tutorial, the mission would succeed as long as he hit twenty kills. It was worth attempting twenty kills even if it meant risking defeat.

Unaware of Almond’s murderous gaze, the team began hunting the monster.

“Alright, ready to attack it?”

“Okay~. Go!”

The tank champion, Iron Monster Bart, started the engagement.

Wooooong!

Bart’s summoner swung his heavy iron fist.

[Flying Punch]

This skill threw a punch with the user’s full weight behind it. It was extremely powerful, but the shifted weight would knock the user off balance and make them fall if it missed. That downside didn’t apply at all with a target this large right in front.

Boom!

As long as it hit, Bart could stabilize himself and immediately follow up.

Thud! Crash!

The iron fists rained down a three-hit combo.

[Earth Blow]

He mixed in another skill at the end. This ground slam launched enemies into the air.

“Krrrraaaaaaah!”

Of course, an epic monster like the Abyss Shark didn’t get launched. It only staggered slightly.

[HP: 89%]

Still, its health dropped significantly.

“Kaaaaaaaah!”

The Abyss Shark bared its razor-sharp teeth and lunged at Bart. Swimming through the air, it instantly tore into him. With a vicious sound, massive jaws sank into Bart.

Kiiiiing!

[Bart has used Iron Body!]

Taking a boxing guard stance, Bart activated his defensive skill and endured the damage.

— For a beginner, that Bart is solid

— Oh, new champion

— This won’t work, man. Let’s just go back

— Bart? LOL that new champion is busted

Almond glanced at the chat.

‘What? Is that a new champion?’

He was seeing Bart for the first time, but Raina seemed to know.

“Bart... So we meet again on the battlefield.”

— Oh, special dialogue LOL

— Yep

— Oh

— Right, Bart shows up in Raina’s story mode

— Wait, Raina is talking LOL

Bart was one of the champions who had blocked Raina’s escape in her story mode. It seemed he had been newly released.

“That was a thing?”

Of course, Almond didn’t remember.

— LMAOOOO

— You killed him...

— Brutally too

— The attacker’s memory is scary

— Raina is getting mad again...

Raina seemed to reprimand him. “You don’t even remember this?”

As if that weren’t enough...

— Yikes

— “Oppa, where was our first date again?”

— What is that tone LOL

Almond recognized the next champion that stepped forward. “Oh. I know that one.”

Bang!

[Rifleman – Sharyl]

The most commonly used champion, Rifleman Sharyl, was a ranged damage dealer. Black Tea used this champion all the time in ranked matches.

Raina scoffed. “Hah?”

— LOL

— This is bad, bro...

— Of all things, another girl LOL

— Give the lips back, thief! Give them back!

— You remember other women?

— What the hell

— Raina is alive...

— Is this really AI?

Despite Raina’s reaction, Almond was too focused on the situation to pay much attention.

‘How do I ambush them?’

His eyes were locked on the enemy ranged attacker. In any team fight, killing the ranged attacker first drastically increased the odds of victory.

‘One of the two summoners is the ranged attacker...’

A path could open if he killed that summoner. Almond kept looking for an angle in this one-versus-five fight.

He muttered, “Hit level six... then the rune box.”

— ?

— ...?

— ?

— Huh?

Giiirik.

Almond drew his bow and burst forward.

— He’s really going?

— Alone?? LOL

— No way LOL

— Charging in to die~

— Sir, this is a five player game...

— It’s fine. They’re bots...

Even if they were busy fighting an epic monster, what could he possibly do alone by attacking them from behind? The viewers, who knew these weren’t actually bots, couldn’t help but feel uneasy.